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BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough?
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Subject: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: DMcG Date: 03 Feb 13 - 05:11 AM According to the Telegraph of Sunday 03 February 2013 , "Sir David Attenborough, the 86-year-old doyen of natural history programmes, said this week: 'If I had a torch I would hand it to Brian Cox.'" Who the successor of Sir David would be is tricky. Dr Cox is certainly a strong contender for his enthuasiam and screen presence. He also seems to work hard to make complex ideas understandable. On the other hand I don't think he is as willing to trust the viewers to understand more difficult concepts as, say, Chris Packham. Moreover, I think now we have the excellent 'Life' series available we are growing beyond the 'look at this animal' stage and will have to get a bit deeper. Again, using Packham as an illustration, he did a short series on the relationships between animals without focusing on any animal in particular, which to me opened a whole new type of natural history programme. Of course, I don't see Packham in the all-purpose-scientist role that seems to be developing: why is a Doctor of Nuclear Physics the right person to present evolution, after all? - but I don't see why we need an all-purpose-scientist-presenter in the first place. I am no more comfortable with a naturalist fronting a physics programme than the converse. So, what are your thoughts? And is it really just a presenter we want, where the actual knowledge isn't important? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: John MacKenzie Date: 03 Feb 13 - 05:51 AM My immediate thought was, please no! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 03 Feb 13 - 05:56 AM Very noble, and typical of Attenborough, to recommend Brian as someone to whom the Torch may be handed. He always was a man of humility and self-deprecation. I'm not sure about Cox, What a varied and odd CV! (He's actually a Professor at Manchester Uni as well as a Doctor of Nuclear Physics, after having been in a pop band). On reflection, he should appeal to the younger generation, which is important. Attenborough is of the 'old school', (but no less worthy for all that). Cox does explain difficult concepts in simple terms, but dumbing down can feel a bit irritating if one has a few brain cells of one's own. The thing that gives me the creeps is his constant and inappropriate smug grin which is never off his face. I imagine him giving someone devastating news with this fixed smile still in place. I also have mixed feelings about the words and formulae which appear on the screen while he's talking. Do we really need to actually SEE Hs and Os combining and floating about while he explains water? Maybe so, given the lamentable standards of education nowadays in science. Final verdict: Not Sure. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Fred McCormick Date: 03 Feb 13 - 06:17 AM Well, BC is a good presenter who knows his stuff, and has a lot of the same boyish infection which DA still manages to enthuse. But could he ever become a second David Attenborough? Personally I think that's too steep a hill for any of today's broadcasters to climb. I was watching Attenborough 60 Years last night and was 2moved and riveted inturns, as he explained how changing attitudes to nature conservation had influenced his own work. The only solution; keep pumping him up and keep sending him to report on wild exotic locations such as China, where he is at the moment. With any luck, he might just live forever. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 03 Feb 13 - 06:34 AM My friend Janet and I have always had a massive crush on David. He came for a book-signing to Norwich fairly recently, and Janet bought his book. We queued for ages to see him. When we finally arrived at his table, he was delightful and charming. He said "And how are you two ladies today?" To our eternal shame, we stood there like two idiot schoolgirls, giggling inanely and blushing to the roots of our grey hair! He really has 'It' in bucketfuls. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Stu Date: 03 Feb 13 - 07:32 AM As Attenborough virtually created the sort of natural history programming that has lead to the incredible programmes we see today (such as Africa), then no-one can follow him. The best thing to do is have experts in the field they are presenting in doing the talking, so whilst Brian Cox is brilliant for astronomy and physics I wouldn't have him doing natural history programmes. I'd have Chris Packham for DA role or Helen Czerski for presenting on issues of the wider global picture, which is becoming more important with every passing day. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 04 Feb 13 - 05:13 AM Watched Cox again last night, and have to say, was riveted. It was all about the senses and how they've evolved over millions of years in various life-forms. Once you get used to the permagrin, he does explain things very well and from a new angle. I must stop being prejudiced in my old age! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: freda underhill Date: 04 Feb 13 - 05:18 AM I think Brian Cox is excellent!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: John MacKenzie Date: 04 Feb 13 - 05:34 AM This is the real, and original, not to mention brilliant, Brian Cox. The permagrinning, effeminate subject of this thread, is a pale shadow by comparison. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Steve Shaw Date: 04 Feb 13 - 05:49 AM Effeminate? I've never thought of him that way. I'm rather fond of Helen Czerski myself. She's a refreshing change from the chirpy-cheep-cheep style of woman presenter that the Beeb seems to prefer (think Bradbury and Strachan). Kate Humble is a bit too wide-eyed and let's-go-pond-dipping-and-see-what-we-have-back-at-the-freezing-cold-field-centre for me (as well as being fatally associated with Oddie, of course). Anyway, why do we have to have just one? I'd go for a Cox/Czerski axis any time. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Musket Date: 04 Feb 13 - 05:58 AM An interest in your subject and a knack of getting it over without dumbing it down. I could relate that observation to both Mr Attenborough and Prof. Cox. There are other presenters who work in their field and can explain it to the rest of us, Lord Robert Winston being one that springs to mind. I used to tell my lads to read Isaac Asimov as he could take a complicated subject and explain it without losing any of it. I have since read my youngest's latest draft of his PhD thesis (physics) and was delighted to see that he has made a huge effort to make it readable to others. In short, I don't think a mantle needs handing over. The legacy of explaining well, making difficult subjects accessible to those not immersed in them and forwarding science against the disturbing rise of ignorance and superstition is something to be expanded rather than merely handed over. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Megan L Date: 04 Feb 13 - 06:14 AM I dislike both Mr Attenborough is far to jolly hokeysticks and Mr cox treats us like primary one schoolchildren most anoying after a while. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: John MacKenzie Date: 04 Feb 13 - 06:32 AM Bring back, Hans and Lotte Haas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 04 Feb 13 - 07:02 AM These days the Beeb's schedules seem to be dominated by Brian Cox and Sarah (bloody irritating) Millican. Last night, on Cox's prog. about quantum theory, he actually "invited" bloody irritating Millican to "help" with a demonstration. She did her usual irritating 'rude but dumb Geordie girl' act. Bloody irritating! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Steve Shaw Date: 04 Feb 13 - 07:03 AM Flippin' 'eck, I didn't feel like I was being treated to a primary school lesson during the latter reaches of his lecture last night... I agree, Musket, and, as as science kind of bloke, I appreciate the attention to detail without dumbing-down that Cox, Attenborough and Winston (and Helen Czerski) manage to achieve. You do need that extra bit of pizzazz though, a little touch of je ne sais quoi, if you want to capture a big audience. I know that the wildlife programmes are glossy and that you don't smell the giraffe dung or feel the mozzie bites, but it has never been more important for saving what we have left to get people interested in the natural world. Knowledge is power! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 04 Feb 13 - 08:42 AM I absolutely adore Lucy Worsley. She's zany, enthusiastic, erudite and above all interesting. It makes an enormous difference if there's a presenter who knows their stuff, has something 'unusual' or 'quirky' about them, doesn't talk down, yet explains in accessible terms and arouses enthusiasm in the next generation. There are and have been many such on TV. Fred Dibnah, Ray Mears, Dan Cruickshank, Bruce Parry and Lucinda Lambton are some examples. Any more suggestions anyone? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,CS Date: 04 Feb 13 - 09:03 AM Chris Packham is great, totally engaged with his subject, knowledgable and quirky I also like Dr. Alice Roberts (Coast), but we don't watch TV anymore so I'm unsure if she's been on anything lately. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Steve Shaw Date: 04 Feb 13 - 10:22 AM I like Doc Roberts too. But Fred Dibnah, that over-the-top professional northerner? Aargh! I suppose it doesn't help that my schooldays were spent in Bolton... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Musket Date: 04 Feb 13 - 12:18 PM Aye Steve, but regarding Fred Dibnah, I think that far from being a professional northerner, he was the real deal. He couldn't have got away wit it without being himself. The original fly on the wall documentary that started him off on telly said it all. I suppose your life in Bolton might give you a view, but surely, that doesn't translate to not wishing to hear our Bernard, the Bolton Bullfrog??? (Or is Horwich not Bolton?) To hear Fred Dibnah describe how fireboxes were reinforced, or when he worked out how the lantern on Ely Cathedral was mounted.. Some of my favourite bits of telly. I loved that scene on his final tour where they are in a pub eating fish & chips and Fred saying that posh people miss all this, so who'd want to be posh? He felt sorry for them.. Might be contrived, might even be scripted, who knows? But the provenance it gave to his view of the social side of the industrial revolution? Priceless. Anyway, everything is relative. Bill Oddie may not be my cup of char when it comes to BBC wildlife, but on the other hand, he did write The Funky Gibbon, Black Pudding Bertha and Sick Man Blues.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: John MacKenzie Date: 04 Feb 13 - 12:58 PM Aye; 'appen 'e should ha gi'en oop, while 'e were ahead, eh? I'm sorry I'll write that again. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Steve Shaw Date: 04 Feb 13 - 04:56 PM I think that far from being a professional northerner, he was the real deal. I don't reckon. O'er t'top, mekkin a bloody big thing of 'is accent. Like Parky does, that professional bloody Yorkshireman. Bill Oddie has an ego bigger than my arse, and he hates cats. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 05 Feb 13 - 05:09 AM Steve, I can't forgive Oddie for hating cats, but I saw a documentary on TV a long time ago telling of his childhood. He had a horrendous time as his mother was severely mentally ill and was taken away in front of him without explanation. His dad was left desolate and depressed, so poor Oddie didn't have much happiness. He himself has had bouts of mental illness and depression. I feel his 'ego' could be a front for deep sadness. I really like his birding programmes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 05 Feb 13 - 05:12 AM I just remembered Johnny Kingdom, the man from Exmoor who conquered depression by taking up wildlife filming. I found his programmes superb, and he has enormous enthusiasm and humility. I also love his accent! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: Steve Shaw Date: 05 Feb 13 - 02:47 PM :-( Blimey, I feel guilty now for hating Oddie for hating cats! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Musket sans cookie Date: 06 Feb 13 - 02:41 AM You could always do a Steeleye Span and cut out the middle man Steve.. Im going to kill my cat Then I'll smother it with a pillow Cos it pissed all around my hat And its going to rue the day! When I've done dissecting it I'll put it in a paper bag And send all the bits off To the RSPCA |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is Cox the new Attenborough? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 06 Feb 13 - 06:06 AM LOL! Our cats piss on anything if we don't keep an eye on them. My husband threatens to make them into a tasty meat pie. (But he loves them really...I think...) |
